Flesh and blood
by bhut
Summary: The Cutters' confrontation in episode 3x03 ends in a different way sending the ARC team on a different adventure path altogether.
1. Chapter 1

**Flesh and Blood**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

"...and here I thought that you would be smart," Nick's voice is same as it was before, in their shared time at Leek's compound. A string inside Helen's heart and mind seems to be ready to snap, and she is seeing red. Her finger begins to tighten on the trigger – one shot and Nick's arrogance is finished.

"...And there are important differences between us and our ancestors," a new voice resonates in Helen's brain, a voice that she's intently familiar with. "Our ancestors – just like their ancestors, the earlier mammals – can turn on each other, on their own flesh and blood, as soon as their instincts tell them too. For us, the modern people, it is different – we are not ruled solely by our instincts, but also by our thoughts and emotions. Thus, if we give-in to our instincts, then we give-in to our inner beast."

As these words as resonating in her head, Helen stiffens. She knows these words, she knows this voice. It is her, speaking the words of her thesis, never published, written during the last three (and a bit) million years of Earth's history.

"I not be smart, Nick, but I am not a hypocrite or in self-denial," Helen lets her hand drops. "You want to be with Stephen? Do it yourself, do not consider me your pawn. Good luck in your future, and hopefully you will resolve your problems the next time we meet."

Nick's face is distorted from the various emotions of his own, and he opens his mouth to speak, but Helen is through with him – for now. Instead of sticking around for others to arrive, she turns around and leaves through a manifested time anomaly, leaving the ruined building of the ARC behind her.

End


	2. Chapter 2

**Flesh and Blood II**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

When Connor Temple led Nick Cutter out of the now-ruined ARC, the former palaeontology professor looked as if he had been hit by a two-by-four and none too gently, either. "So, where's the little woman?" Lester asked in his trademark 'caring' manner. "Fled, I suppose?"

"Yes," Nick replied absently, but it was evident that his heart wasn't in it. "You're as on the spot as always, Lester, as always."

James Lester was not the most socially aware (or extravert, unless it was necessary), but even he caught on that something was off in this picture. "All right, what did your loving wife tell you _now_?" he asked in that insistently caring voice of his. "Come on, you can tell Uncle Lester."

"Not everything is about you, Lester," Nick absent-mindedly shook his head. "All right, I'm taking the rest of the day off. If there's another time anomaly related emergency – call me. If not – don't. I'll be having a drink."

"Now see here, you can't just leave here!" Lester began to bluster, but Nick was about done with the civil servant.

"I'm sure that you can start rebuilding the ARC without my input," he said absent-mindedly, "and after dealing with Helen and her clones I need a drink. Have a nice day."

"And you're sure that while you're away drinking down your sorrows," Lester's voice sharpened, "I won't have you replaced?"

"Yup," Nick nodded morosely. "I'm also sure that I can drink you under the table, but we'll never know."

"Big words from a poof with dandelion-like hair!" Lester snapped. "You're on, bitch!"

"What has happened?" Jenny Lewis asked Connor Temple in utter confusion, as they observed Nick and James walk off to, apparently, have a drink. "Did Nick and James just leave to have a drink?"

"Yup," Connor agreed, looking unusually thoughtful. "I almost never saw Nick this bad, not counting when his mother would visit him on his birthdays or on Christmas holidays."

"His...mother?" Jenny repeated, a trifle hesitantly, as she realized that she knew rather little about Cutter's family life. "Care to share?"

"Of course," Connor nodded and began to talk. As he spoke and Jenny attentively listened, nobody saw Abby walk away as well, with a thoughtful look on her face.

Even evil – or crazy – ex-anthropologists need to take a bath, and that's what Helen Cutter was doing: taking bath, using the fact that her husband was probably very busy sorting out the ruins of his current working place. Therefore, when she heard the sound of the doorbell ringing Helen was caught surprised, but descended downstairs, deciding to risk it, if it was a trap of the ARC. However, it wasn't a trap, but only Abby Maitland, looking rather unsure about this would-be confrontation.

"Well?" Helen broke the silence after it became obvious that the younger woman wasn't going to. "Nick's not home, you know?"

"No, really?" Abby said, almost sarcastically. "Anyways, I'm here to see you. See, I've been checking out my ancestry, and-"

"Not out here!" Helen's hand struck unexpectedly quickly, grabbed Abby and pulling her inside. "Let me guess, you've learned of grandpa Morris?"

"Great-grandfather," Abby said wryly, "and you're not surprised?"

"Dad used to tell me of grandpa's exploits," Helen shrugged, "and suggested that if I ever meet a stranger who implies that we have shared ancestry it's grandfather's fault – he was something of a man about town, it seems. That's strange, for my parents loved each other too much to even consider cheating, and my only other relative is a spinster aunt."

"And you?" Abby couldn't help but ask.

"Me? I've been married well over a decade and have no children," Helen snorted disdainfully. "Hopefully, you'll take more after grandfather and have several children instead."

"Gee, thanks, but that'll be more of Jack's thing than mine," Abby said wryly.

"Jack?"

"My brother," Abby elaborated, before lapsing into slightly less uncomfortable silence.

"So, why did you decide to tell me?" Helen finally spoke.

"I have no idea – after today I was almost ready not to," Abby admitted. "But somehow I decided to – not to give you a chance or anything, just because it might be the right thing to do."

"Really?" Helen said. "Well, fair enough. Since there's nothing that I want from you, and there's nothing that you want from me... how do you feel about karaoke?"

"Pardon?" Abby nodded incredulously. "Did you say karaoke?"

Helen nodded, grinning perhaps for the first time since Stephen died. "Want to try?"

"Why not?"

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Flesh and Blood III**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

_Note: This takes place during or after Primeval episode 3x04_

"Ah, professor Cutter, I assume that everything went smoothly?" Lester asks in a voice that could be probably used for fuel – it was so oily and rich (and not in a good way).

"Yes," Nick nodded abruptly, "and by the way, that smooth, polished way you're going for? That Johnson woman actually _looks_ the part, the way you try to."

"Ah yes," Lester glared at Nick in the same manner he glared at him ever since Cutter _did_ drink him under the table after Helen's semi-successful attack on the ARC, "speaking of women and their men..." He turned on the TV, where Helen Cutter either herself or a really advanced clone, was giving an interview on the ITV regarding the prehistoric wildlife and the time anomalies that brought them here. "What can you say about _this_?"

"Jenny?" Nick carefully turned to his new girlfriend, "is there anything that we can do about it? I mean, we did see the TV host and her sidekick get eaten by the giganotosaurus, we saw bits of their flesh drop from the dinosaur giant's jaws..."

"Great! We're besieged by an evil clone empire, who is being led by your ex, and the closest we have for Yoda is... you again," Lester said, bitterly. "If you ever start to speak in reverse, I'll fire you – from a canon. Into the sky."

"Pshaw! You're just mad for I made you eat your boast," Nick snorted, his accent purposefully prominent.

"Oh, is that so?" Lester snapped back. "Well, while Ms. Lewis here is trying to figure out how to undo the damage Helen had wrought, let's try a rematch, shall we?"

"You're on," Nick agreed, placidly. "Bring it!"

...As the office door closed behind the pair, Jenny just stared at Abby and Connor, who stared back.

"And the saddest thing?" Abby said, looking askance at the still-broadcasting TV interview, "this isn't even our fight, not really – Helen seems _not_ to be mentioning the ARC at all."

"Well, naturally, considering what she has done to it," Connor muttered back.

"Never mind that, people," Jenny joined in the dissention, looking at the closed office door with distinct disapproval. "Let's get PR!"

_To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Flesh and Blood IV**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

"Hey, Helen," Abby called out cheerfully, as she saw her older cousin sitting in their usual booth. "What you've been up to?"

"Making sense of the past," Helen replied in her usual, enigmatic manner. "And you?"

"Dealing with a future fungus," Abby replied in her usual cheery manner, and then sobered down somewhat. "And don't tell Connor, I know that he tends to get possessive of his dinosaurs, but I would've rather faced the G-Rex again, rather than that thing. There's something innately creepy about a fungus that takes over people, and converts them from flesh and blood into, uh-"

"That fungus," Helen spoke quietly, "was it grey, or russet, or-"

"Grey, very much so," Abby replied, as something in Helen's voice made an arguments redundant to say the least. "Why, you have seen it?"

Helen gave the younger woman a look. "Yeah, okay, you have," Abby realized belatedly. "That said, we _have_ dealt with it, really."

"How?" Helen asked, still quiet.

"Well, first we were going to use flame-throwers, but Connor, fortunately, realized that that made the future fungus only spore more quickly. So, we've used cold instead to freeze-dry them to death! Neat, hah?"

"What about the corpses?"

"All freeze-dried," Abby said proudly.

"Acid."

"Excuse me?"

"Use acid to get rid of them. The grey death is more resilient to hard temperatures than you think; the spores can survive months of overly cold or hot weather, but still remain fully viable and ready to reproduce."

"...What about Jenny?" Abby finally said. "She's been exposed to the fungus creature directly – the cold _did_ kill all of the contaminating spores in her body, right?"

Helen kept quiet, but Abby by now had known her cousin well enough to see that this was not a reaffirming, but a thoughtful silence, and not necessarily in a good way.

"Jenny Lewis," Helen finally spoke, "can go hang herself, for all I care. That said, the idea of the mutant Cordyceps from the future returning in a year or so, is even worse – and given Lester's idea of management, it'll be from several points at once. Therefore," she rustled in her bag and was, apparently, satisfied by what she found, "let's go and give her some vaccination, shall we?"

"Let's," Abby nodded in full agreement. "Hold on, Jenny, we're coming!"

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**Flesh and Blood V**

_Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Impossible Pictures™._

When James Lester opened the door to his apartment and saw Helen Cutter standing there, as bold as you'd please, he was less than impressed by this development.

"Mrs. Cutter," he said in his more curtly manner, "what a surprise to see you here? Have you come to inject me with some rubbish that will cause excess weeping and temporary swelling?"

"So Jenny Lewis told you about me flushing her body system of the fungal leftovers?" Helen shrugged nonchalantly, as she forced her way into Lester's flat. "Big deal. If Nick had screwed me once despite my bad leg, he can certainly love and console Jenny while she has to wear glasses on account of her temporarily bad eyesight."

"And when was that?" Lester couldn't help but ask.

"When the ARC encountered its first future predator, several lifetimes ago," Helen shrugged, still nonchalant, even as she shifted her grip on the large, commercial-style handbag that contained something suspiciously like video and radio tapes.

"And the bad leg?" Lester pressed on.

"Over 300 million years ago, one of the giant spiders bit me there. The pain was hellish, but if I had lied down back there, I would've never risen again. So, I walked on, and by the time I emerged on the other side of the time anomaly, in the late Jurassic, my flesh and blood and bone down there got hopelessly twisted." A mocking, humourless grin came onto Helen's face. "Enough about me, however – let's talk about the anal-retentive witch."

Lester blinked, opened his mouth, closed it, and opened again. "You're referring about Christine Johnson, aren't you?" he finally spoke. "Can I ask why?"

"She pissed me off," Helen shrugged, as she set her handbag down. "Therefore – it took me a while, I admit – but I did something about it. Enjoy."

"You made movies?" Lester asked, sceptically. "Then I got to see them – or not."

"Suit yourself," Helen shrugged. "I did my peace and settled my conscience – now do whatever you want to. I'm done."

"You know, the last time you said this, Connor and Cutter did discover the fungal remains both in Jenny's tears and in the corpses – you _did_ help us avert a particularly nasty disaster," Lester said, even as Helen reached his door. "So... what's your game here, anyways?"

"Honestly," Helen half-turned and faced Lester with another, small smile on her face, "I don't have one. I'm going with my strength and making it as I go along. And you're welcome."

"So why not stick around for the duration of the show?" Lester pressed on. "Your comings and goings to here and there – and no, I don't mean my apartment – are getting to be rather annoying. Are you a part of the Center or what?"

"Now the answer to that question is somewhere between yes and no," the sparks in Helen's eyes clearly indicated that that was a joke. "But... why not. I got some time to kill. I'll stay."

"If what you brought over is some sort of a romantic flick _or_ something like the German porn may neighbour likes to watch to get in the mood, you'll regret it," Lester snapped, as he resigned himself to watch some sort of amateur videos with Helen Cutter for company.

Less than halfway into the first video Lester realized that he was going to eat the last statement.

"...Becker," Danny Quinn nodded somewhat curtly to the other man. "Nice to see you again, and just in time to help us round-up the terror birds."

"They tried to eat me!" Connor added helpfully, succeeding in pulling-off the big-eyed look of terror on his face very well.

"Yes, well, I bear good news," Becker replied nonchalantly, as the last of the raptor-like flightless birds fled through the time anomaly. "Christine Johnson is out, Lester's back in; all is all right in the world once again."

"How did that happen?" Sarah asked, curious, even as she lobbed another stun grenade at the terror birds: Connor hadn't been the only one who almost got eaten.

"It's complicated," Becker admitted, "or, since I was one of those who had to arrest her on the ground of a terrorist conspiracy with late Oliver Leek, not too much."

There was a pause, as everyone, especially Abby and Connor, just stared at him. "What's Oliver Leek got to do with it?" Connor asked, flatly.

"Essentially? Johnson and Lester disliked each other with intensity that made the Cutters' dispute look positively domestic," Becker admitted, somewhat reluctantly. "Leek was Johnson's plant in the Center, only he went AWOL, as, apparently, her operatives tended to do in the past. Now, however, considering that Leek had almost gone too far before he was stopped, well... Johnson's out and will be lucky to see London again before she dies. To all effects and purposes, she's been exiled, for good."

"After all the grief she gave us? She definitely deserved it," Sarah said finally. "Do Jenny and Nick know?"

"Lester went to the hospital to tell them the good news personally," Becker said, deciding to omit that Lester went there with a companion. "Want to join them in the good news?"

"Do we!" Connor said, excitedly. "The terror birds have been dealt with, so let's go."

And off they went, without Connor noticing the somewhat worried looks that Becker and Abby exchanged between themselves: when Connor will confront Helen for himself, what will happen?

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**Flesh and Blood VI**

_Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Impossible Pictures™._

The next time James Lester encountered Helen Cutter, it was at his office, and Helen had Abby Maitland in her wake.

"Mrs. Cutter," he said with a sour, sour grimace – he was in no mood for niceties. "Is it time for the share-holders reviewing meeting already?"

"Share-holders?" Abby turned to Helen in surprise. "What's he talking about?"

"The favour he owes me...which brings me to my point," Helen turned Lester. "I transferred it to Abby, so if you please."

"Please do what?" Lester asked, suspiciously.

"Help me house Jack!"

There was a pause as it became obvious that none of the trio wanted to speak first at the moment. "And Jack is-?" Lester spoke finally.

"My brother," Abby finished, somewhat reluctantly. "He's in town for a month or two, so I want to house him, only I cannot really let him stay at my place – I already got Rex, Sid and Nancy, oh, and Connor too-"

"Miss Maitland, the Center is already housing a dinosaur that your happy crew had rescued from that medieval knight," Lester snapped, flatly. "What did Cutter and Shaggy call it? _Dracorex_?"

"Oh, you've met Dragon!" Abby said happily, then sobered somewhat. "Um, does it mean that you won't help me with Jack?"

"I'd rather not," Lester admitted, as he cast a suspicious gaze at Helen. "I owe Mrs. Cutter a favour, because I have not, not because I want to-"

"Well, if you don't want to help us with Jack Maitland, then that's fine," Helen said, finally. "I'm sure that Abby will be able to move her previous tenants here as well. Let's see, there's Rex, Sid and Nancy, oh, and Connor-"

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait," Lester grew noticeably more agitated. "Why Shaggy will have to stay _here_? Isn't there one of your little friends that can host him? Well, not counting Helen, of course-"

"Connor won't stay with Helen for an equally obvious reason, Nick is busy with Jenny and his family, so a strange teenager is definitely not something he needs; Danny's a cop, and Jack doesn't get along with cops, unfortunately; Sarah simply cannot host a strange young man – even my brother for several weeks; and Becker, well, does Becker have an apartment himself? He seems to be spending most of his time here, you know?" Abby replied in a rush. "Really, you're my only hope!"

There was a brief pause, and then Lester exhaled, visibly deflating from his righteous indignation. "Oh, very well, send him over to my place; I'll see what I'll be able to do."

"Thanks, Mr. Lester, you're a good man," Abby briefly hugged her superior and run-off - probably to contact Jack and tell him about the good news.

"What she said," Helen nodded wryly, and turned around to leave Lester's office at a more leisurely pace.

"Wait," Lester called out to her. "What's _your_ angle? Why did _you_ do this?"

"Why not?" Helen half-turned to face him once more. "Sometimes you just do things because they're right. See you." And she left, though this time Lester was able to notice that she was favouring her right leg for some reason. He noticed this... and forgot about this, he had more immediate worries to be concerned about.

He could only hope that that Jack Maitland won't be too much hassle.

_TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**Flesh and Blood VII**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

Jack Maitland was able to regain consciousness only because someone was shaking him by a shoulder – make it both shoulders.

"Jack, are you okay?" Someone's frantic face leaned over his own. "You look kind of pale."

"Leg... hurts..." Jack wheezed.

"Oh, in the name of Jupiter Pater, let me see this!" another somebody helped Jack on his feet – well, a foot, since his other foot hurt. "Good news – it's just a twisted ankle."

"Still hurts," Jack argued.

"In the name of Jupiter Pater," the second newcomer – a woman, opposed to the first, who was a man, "I once walked with a semi-digested foot for several miles to the nearest time anomaly through the Carboniferous sludge. _You_, consequently, can make it up the ladder with just a twisted ankle, even if I'll have to stick raw chilli pepper up your arse for extra motivation! Choose!"

"I'm going, I'm going," Jack said quickly, and began to half-climb, half-hop upwards. With the newcomers helping him from behind, and the giant futuristic insect coming upwards from behind them to provide motivation, the three of them climbed up and out of the abandoned shaft in no time. And then-

"Don't move!" Abby whispered desperately, as she, Connor and Becker gazed upwards at the mechanical monstrosity that adhered to the dilapidated building wall with a great dexterity. "Maybe-"

"Hey, Geraldine," Helen said cheerfully. "What business brings you here now?"

"The artefact. My artefact. You organics have stolen it, I want it back," Geraldine snapped, as she jumped off to the wall and to the shaft in a single leap of her eight legs. "Now. And what's with the Geraldine bit? Why are you so polite?"

"Let's see. When we left it was May 16th. Give us a week – that's May 23rd on our end – and you can have it, no problem," Helen replied back. "That's the deal, take it or leave it. And I'm trying to be polite because your spouse asked me to last time we talked, remember."

"Fine, I'll take it," Geraldine snapped, "but only because you've remembered her request – and have never reneged on our deals. Do not start now!" Saying that, she jumped away and was gone in a matter of moments.

"And _now_," Helen's voice was full of that sort of desperate brightness that tends to convince people that the reprieve they got before they got executed may just only be temporary, "we're leaving. No arguments!"

And there were none.

When the Jack-extraction team returned from the time anomaly, they were met not only by Sarah Page (who stayed behind in fear of the futuristic insects), but also by Nick and Jenny, who got finally discharged from the hospital after the incident with the future fungus about a month ago.

"Helen," Nick glared at his ex-wife.

"Australopithecus afarensis! Hi!" Helen waved back. "Why aren't you in the Pliocene?"

"Claudia Brown," Jenny intervened seeing as Helen wasn't in a very co-operative mood, apparently.

"Ah," Helen nodded back, more soberly than before, "the artefact?"

"Yes," Jenny nodded, "but also – Claudia?"

"She travelled the world and the seven seas," Helen shrugged, "looking for Nick at first... but then she changed, as I did, as Geraldine did, as the others have done."

"Others? There are others who have gone through the time anomalies as you have?" Jenny looked with curiosity.

"Yes," Helen agreed. "I even know some of them. Anyways, Geraldine – that's Claudia's other half, in a matter of speaking – will be coming here for the artefact in a week, so Connor should be wrapping up, as he boasted earlier today, eh?"

Connor turned red, but then he remembered something. "Wait a moment, isn't Geraldine-"

"A self-proclaimed nanotechnological cyborg? Yes," Helen shrugged, "that's her mojo. She claims that this state of being is superior to our flesh and blood. We tend to disagree... but she has her moments, especially when she's more lucid rather than less."

"And she's coming to us in a week? Fun," Jack muttered, thoughtfully, ignoring the looks Abby and Helen exchanged from behind his back. It was at this moment that James Lester appeared on the scene (completely unexpectedly), and he was livid:

"Jack Maitland! You! You! You! How dare you hijack my invitation to the Buckingham Palace?"

Jack gulped and began to hurriedly retreat from the older, irate man – with mixed success.

"So," Abby muttered to Helen as everyone else, apparently, got distracted by the Jack and James show, "James Lester is trying to kill Jack and we'll be visited by a not-too-sane cyborg in a week. No wonder I don't miss the zoo – I got it right here. Have I missed anything?"

"I'm trying to settle it between Becker and Danny for good," Sarah carefully sidled over to the pair. "Any advice."

"And a dash of soap opera," Abby finished. "Yup, life is good."

_TBC_


	8. Chapter 8

**Flesh and Blood VIII**

_The characters are either mine or belong to Impossible Pictures™._

Throughout the roughly three years of its existence, the ARC had seen many things, but it was a first time that a government car – looking much more impressive than even Lester's – had stopped at its front entrance, and a pair of women emerged from it before going into the building.

"Ah, James," the first of the pair – tall, slim (almost too slim), dark-haired and dark-spectacled told the flustered-looking James Lester as the latter rushed out of his office (for a change) to greet the newcomers. "It's been what? A month or so since we last met?"

"Madame minister," James Lester managed to reply, "what for do we have the honour of your visit?"

"In a moment, James," Lester's boss said rather dismissively, "first I need to see professor Cutter and that artefact of yours..."

It was then that Connor Temple appeared on the scene, having just finished writing his final report on the Center's artefact and its properties. When he saw the newcomers, he blinked, froze, and blinked again. "Do I know you?" he finally spoke.

"The artefact, organic, my artefact," the senior government worker spoke nastily, her jaws moving in a funny way, almost out of tune with her voice. "Helen Cutter has vouchsafed for you for this week – now the time is up. Where is it?"

"Here!" Abby appeared next to Connor and thrust the artefact into the other woman's long-fingered – even overly so – hand. "Take it, and... where's the rest of you, by the way? Back in the future or whenever?"

"Precisely," Geraldine smiled in a very creepy and inhuman way. "You're smart for an organic."

Geraldine's companion – shorter, blonde, and also female – cleared her throat. "Right," Geraldine said, almost sheepishly, "got carried away, sorry. Anyways, the schedule for today is full, so we'll be leaving now."

"Wait," Lester said slowly, "what did I miss here?"

"I am a nanotechnological cyborg from the future," Geraldine explained helpfully, "and this is my artefact. Originally I intended to take it straight there, but since my underlings – my _direct_ underlings are incapable of doing anything without me and Ms. Brown explaining every detail to them four or five times in a row, the two of us will have to detain that return for this evening..." she trailed away, and Ms. Brown jabbed Geraldine with her elbow. "Right, then, we're off." And the two of them left.

"Well, that was fun!" Helen spoke from behind Lester, startling him (and embarrassing him in front of Abby and Connor, but that was beside the point), "Geraldine _is_ trickier than she looks, isn't she?"

"About a month ago you and Lester were there, in the ministry," Becker said slowly (he had apparently joined Helen and others in lobby). "You knew since then, didn't you?"

"I _suspected_ it," Helen jabbed at Becker with her finger, "and suspicion isn't certainty, I could've been wrong. Plus, even if I'm right, so what? There's no law that prohibits nanotechnological cyborgs from the future from holding posts in the government, is there?"

"No," Lester admitted, "plus it may be the reason why she is so good at what she does... let's not go there for now, please? Anyways-"

"Anyways, Abby, Jenny Lewis is looking to talk to you about your bridesmaid dress," Helen interrupted him again. "So can you please go and see her? The wedding's date is soon enough, and you-"

"Actually, I'm here already," Jenny appeared from behind Lester. "Is there a problem?"

"No, just resolving one," Abby said quickly. "So I'm going to be a bridesmaid?"

"Yes," Jenny said, brightly. "Helen, Mr. Lester, captain – you're invited as well."

"Hey, it says here that we can bring a date, optional," Jack Maitland said cheekily as he appeared reading his own invitation as well. "Mr. Lester, want to go together?"

Lester twitched.

_To be concluded..._


	9. Chapter 9

**Flesh and Blood IX**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

"...And so Adam replied to G-d: This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man..." father Jerome's voice resonated through the church.

"You know?" James Lester leaned conversationally to his neighbour, namely Helen, formerly Cutter, now Hunter once more, "I never pegged Lewis to be particularly feminist, but if she lets Cutter to get away with this sort of thing, I'll be-"

"Helping us stage an intervention, we know," Helen nodded nonchalantly, even as she leafed through the documents in a folder in her pew, "yes, you do care, everybody's sure about this. Just think of the priest as... a concession to the original Mrs. Cutter – you know, the woolly rhinoceros in that party tent on the side of the groom."

"Well, I suppose so," Lester admitted grudgingly, "she looks as bad as my mum, and that woman is one scary witch, not that I would admit it... what're you reading?"

"Information that Mick and Katherine gave me in exchange for helping them get the gig of reporting about Nick and Jenny's wedding," Helen replied calmly. "Did you ever hear of a man named Philip Burton?"

"Yes, a private entrepreneur, very big, very prominent, very scientific," Lester replied, trying to match Helen's poker face, but not quite succeeding. "Why the interest?"

"He approached me yesterday and offer to buy some of my ARC shares from me," Helen shrugged. "I decided to ask for your advice first, so-"

"No, absolutely not," Lester said flatly.

"Why's the emotion?" Helen asked, curiously. "Did he steal your parking space or something?"

"No, I just abhor any sort of private/public co-operation combinations," Lester admitted, clearly embarrassed by his display of emotion, "it's bad enough that you got a share in the Center, I shiver to think what would happen if a businessman got in as well!"

"I'm sure you'd deal with him," Helen said in a mock-consolation tone as she petted Lester on his shoulder in a rather fake show of concern. "Now sit back and enjoy the ceremony."

"Danny, Becker," Sarah Page said slightly sheepishly, as the two men had rather hemmed her into her seat, "look, we need to talk. This attention of yours is flattering, and, well, but, well, I'm really not looking for a relationship just yet, Nick and Jenny's wedding fervour had infested everyone, and-"

"Why not?" Danny interrupted Sarah's babbling.

"Well, I don't think it'll work because I'm a Copt, for one thing," Sarah said, more slowly than before.

"I thought that you were from Egypt, originally," Becker finally replied, "no?"

"Copts are an African branch of Christianity," Sarah slowly said. "Without getting into any details, let's just say there are key differences from Catholics, or Protestants, or-"

"We're already listening to that from the good father there," Danny said with a grimace, "and judging from the looks on Nick and Jenny's faces, Nick will have to make up a lot after this is over. _A lot_. So, why don't you explain in greater detail, and we'll listen? I doubt that it'll be any worse than what we're hearing at the moment."

Sarah took a deep breath and began to explain about her faith and her childhood as an archaeologist.

She'll deal with her love-life later.

"Look at Sarah! She's talking to Becker and Danny at the same time! I don't know what to say," Connor turned to Abby, "so I'll just skip to the part where I'll say that your bridesmaid's dress looked lovely?"

"Connor, it made me look like a lollypop – a _cheap_ lollypop," Abby muttered back. "Jenny did the best she could, but the dresses suited brunettes better than blondes, and _I_ was the main blonde. Think I should let my hair grow out a bit?"

"I like with any sort of hair length," Connor replied. "Want to get engaged?"

Abby blinked. "Pardon?"

"Well, I've been thinking lately about us," Connor looked askance at the petite blonde, "and, well, I've been thinking-"

"You've been thinking, or just influenced by Nick?" Abby said, somewhat wryly. "Tell you what – it _is_ hard to think straight with all this excitement going on. Wait a month, and then if you're sure, ask me again – then we'll talk."

"Well, I was hoping for a 'yes', but was afraid of a 'no'," Connor admitted. "This is actually better than I was afraid of, I admit. So, in a month? I can wait that long."

Abby nodded in relief, but continued to look at Connor, and at the wedding proper, and at Jack. What was her baby brother up to?

"This is posh," Jack whispered quietly to Lorraine. "This is my first wedding that I've attended, and wow, it's groovy! What do you think?"

Lorraine just nodded absent-mindedly to him. Jack Maitland was an irritation, but no worse than many of the other men in the Center: she could deal with him. No, something else was bothering her, something deeper, hidden deep underneath the peaceful, beautiful scene of the wedding.

_This is a calm before the storm,_ the thought suddenly hit. And as Lorraine looked around, at Helen's enigmatic, sphinx-like facial expression, at Abby's own emotionally semi-detached face (and why was the young woman imitating Helen?) even at Sarah's worried eyes, she knew that the other women somehow, consciously or subconsciously recognized it as well. A storm was brewing in their future, and there was nothing they could do about it right now.

And so, Lorraine leaned back in her seat and just enjoyed the wedding.

End


End file.
